The battlefield stood still for only a moment. Then, the glitched entities surged forward.
Their movements were erratic, flickering in and out of reality as they closed the distance with terrifying speed. Their forms twisted likerrupted images, limbs extending unnaturally before snapping back into place. The air itself distorted around them, warping under their very presence.
Alex took a deep breath, feeling the weight of responsibility settle onto his shoulders.
His friends were unscious, the professors hesitant, and the students terrified—but heuldn’t afford to let that stop him.
He was weak. Alex knew now.
He didn’t think he would feel this anytime soon. He thought that he was strong enough to deal with any problemming his way.
"Archers, mages, focus fire! Frontliners, hold the line!" Hemmanded, his voice carrying over the arena with unshakable authority.
His ’Commanding Presence’ skill flared, and the wavering resolve of the students hardened into determination.
Blades were unsheathed, spells ignited, and barriers raised.
The first clash was violent. A frontline warrior swung his sword at an approaching entity, but the creature glitched through the attack, appearing behind him in an instant.
"GAHHHH!!!" The guy yelled as a distorted limb slammed into his chest, sending him flying across the arena.
"Damn it!" Alex growled, realizing normal attacks wouldn’t be enough.
They weren’t just higher in level; even their strength was beyond the norm.
That was when something strange happened.
One of the entities staggered mid-movement, its form distorting violently. It let out an inhuman shriek, clutching at its flickering chest before its entire bodynvulsed.
Then, in a suddenllapse, it shattered into a swarm of floating numbers and symbolsde?—that dispersed into the air.
"What... was that?" One of the students stammered.
Another entity spasmed. Its glitched body seemed to momentarily reset, and for a brief snd, its form took on something more rgnizable—an armored knight? No, not just any knight—
"The hell? That’s Sir Duncan from the old academy rrds!" A professor gasped. "He died centuries ago!"
Realization hit Alex like a bolt of lightning.
"These aren’t just monsters," he muttered. "They’re broken fragments of existence,rrupting things from the past!"
As if tonfirm his theory, another entity twitched violently, momentarily revealing the face of a student who had supposedly gone missing years ago. The image was wrong—distorted and implete, the eyes vacant and empty—but it was unmistakable.
"They’re... echoes," Alex realized aloud. "Trapped remnants of people, pulled from reality and rewritten into this glitched mess."
A chill ran through the students. Were these things once people? Could they be saved?
[This is happening because the main source of their power, which is probably the one that man took away, is being harmed.]
Alex heard Sophie’s explanation, making him frown, as he realized something.
’Does that mean we just need to hold on?’ He asked, and Sophie, without delay, replied.
[Yes. If the leader of this group loses, so will the others.] Pausing a bit, as if analyzing something, she added, [The source of their power is one, so if the leader is pulling more power, these beings won’t be able to maintain their forms for long.]
Before Alexuld tell others about it though, followed by a piercing screech, one of the creatures lunged at him, its shifting form elongating into a jagged claw.
Alex reacted instantly. His form blurred as he activated ’Space Shift’, his body phasing out of sync with reality just enough to dodge before appearing behind the entity.
Then, his blade,ated in lesser aura, slashed through its midsection.
Instead of simply being cut, the creature unzipped—splitting open like arrupted file breaking apart—before dissolving into numbers that vanished into the air.
"We can destroy them," he declared. "But we need to do it fast before more of themme through!"
The Colosseum rumbled again.
"And remember! We just need to stall for time! Just try to survive!"
As those words reached the ears of the weaker ones, they grew relieved as they realized they didn’t need to fight; theyuld just run.
But suddenly, another voice echoed—not from the audience, not from the students, but from the air itself.
"I won’t let you."
The words weren’t spoken, but they reverberated in their minds. An unseen force, something beyond magic or divinity, was at play here.
The glitching entities twitched violently at the words as if they were reacting to some highermmand.
[Alex. That’s the source of their power!] Sophie’s urgent voice warned Alex about the owner of the voice, making Alex tense.
If that entity was interfering, then things weren’t going arding to its plans.
[This is probably happening because of that senior’s interference.]
Alex understood that as well.
Heuld tell that this entity was getting impatient.
But why was it aiming for him? What did it want from him?
Alexuldn’t remember doing something thatuld cause an entity like that tome for his life.
Just then, breaking him out of his thoughts, a new tear in space opened up in the center of the battlefield.
Alex’s muscles hardened, and so did his expression, as he readied himself for another wave, but what emerged wasn’t a monster.
It was a hand.
A normal human hand—pale, trembling, reaching outward as if grasping for something.
Then followed a voice—croaked, weak, and desperate.
"Help… me…"
Everyone froze.
Because that voice... that voice belonged to someone very, very familiar.
Alex’s blood ranld, his mind reeling.
It was his own voice.
The moment the voice reached Alex’s ears, his breath caught in his throat.
’Impossible.’ That was the only thought in his head.
His mind screamed at him to deny it, to rationalize it as a trick, but there was no mistaking it.
The hoarse, desperate plea belonged to him.
The pale hand trembled, fingers curling as if reaching for salvation. From within the tear, the distorted echoes of pained breathing slipped through—his breathing.
Then, more emerged.
A foot. A leg. And finally, a figure stepped halfway out of the tear.
It was him.
Alex stared at his own face—twisted in anguish, his eyes wide and filled with something he had never seen before. Desperation. Fear. Defeat.
His doppelganger—no, the echo of him—looked directly at him, and when their gazes met, the entity’s bodynvulsed violently, flickering between states of existence.
"You have to run..." the other Alex gasped, his voice laced with unbearable pain. "It’s…ming…"
Alex, however,uldn’t understand what was happening.
The other echoes—or whatever they were—didn’t belong to people who were alive.
Or at least that was what he had been able to make out until now.
So, how was there another him in front of him? And what was it telling him?
’Run? Run from what? What’sming?’
What Alex hated the most was cryptical messages, so if the one in front of him was really him, then there was no way he would leave words implete.
[Alex’s, it’s an illusion!] Sophie quickly warned him, making him jump back just in time to avoid the attack from his doppelganger.
Its hand had now turned into a glitched blade, and as soon as Alex’s eyes turned to the battlefield, staring at others, he understood that it wasn’t just him who was facing his doppelganger.
Everyone was facing one.
Those glitched entities from before had now turned into the duplicate image of the one they were fighting.
’Shit...’ Alex gritted his teeth, knowing that things had just turnedmplicated.
